Hi, Sweeties, it's me, Emmett.  It's been two years since my fated talk with Ben and Hunter, and so much has happened in twenty four months that I don't even know where to start... Well yes I do, let's start with what happened after our little chit-chat. 

Bad Guys

Ben, it turned out had been hanging around his hubby for far longer than he should have, in my humble opinion.  So much so, that I honestly think he must have absorbed more than a few of Michael's brain cells in the time they were together.   Can you believe that after I told Ben what I suspected Michael of doing, that he drugged Brian and Justin, he actually thought that Michael drugging people was okay because nobody was hurt?  I wanted to imitate Deb and slap the big doof up-side the head!  HARD!  I told him that Justin did get hurt, that he was going blind and might be allergic to whatever it was that Michael slipped him.  That if we knew what it was we might be able to reverse the effect.  I even used the 'what if you couldn't write' defense.

Ben of course, and in my opinion, stupidly. decided to talk to Michael first.  Michael, from what I've been told, used the same 'I'm Brian's best friend' defense that we've all gotten so used to hearing that I want to wash my ears out with bleach every time I hear it.  I swear that man is like a broken record when it comes to Brian and his 'best friend' war cry.  Anyway, the bit about being in New York when he said he was in Toronto?  It turns out he did go to Toronto, after making a certain pit stop in New York.

Hunter on the other hand wasn't stupid and he followed Michael home and caught him in the act of retrieving the pills from under the mattress, and being the smart kid he is, called the cops.  Unfortunately, Michael claimed that he was moving them for Ben, if you can believe that.  Ben denied it, but by that point Deb had come to Michael's defense and brought up Ben's jail record. 

Talk about making everyone mad, that sure did it!  By that time Ted, Brian and the kids had returned, so I had no time, money, or energy to help Ben out of the dilemma that Michael was putting him through.  On the bright side Michael didn't have time to devote to worming his way into the firehouse.

Just when it looked like Michael was going to get away with everything, Ted managed to save the day.  He'd been checking out why the girls seemed short of money and thanks to J.R. found out that Michael had been blackmailing them.  Gossip had it, and there was plenty of it, that Ben had put a halt to Michael's spending Ben's hard earned money on collectables and Michael saw easy money when he somehow found out that Mel had never filed the papers giving her and Lindz sole custody of Gus. 

None of this, however, held up in a court of law, especially when the girls couldn't be found to corroborate any of it.  Then when going to her basement,  Deb found Michael's hoard that he had stashed there and she opened her eyes.  Since she had been footing the bills for the lawyer, she was mad as hell and she decided that the bank of Debora Jane Novotny was closed, permanently

So I decided to sit her down and pointed out the many times she'd wronged Brian and having wised up she begged forgiveness and unfortunately for her was turned away by Jenny Rebecca.

Deb had come to the firehouse all meek like, and against my better judgment I let her in.  She spotted Jenny who was playing with rearranging the forest and was all over her like flies on a dead pig and completely ignored Gus.  Strike one.  Then when Brian and Justin came down from their afternoon nap, she apologized while still excusing Michael.  Strike two.  Jenny was madder than a wet hen, so Deb never got to strike three.  When she started in on how Brian couldn't take care of himself much less a little girl, how much Jenny needed her to teach her all the things a woman needs to know, she blew it.  Jenny stood right up to her and said she had her Auntie Em for that, then she turned and gave one word to Gus and Deb was out the door and told in no uncertain terms to never come back.  I'd never been so shocked and proud in my life.

Now Gus is not stupid by any means.  He had contacted a lawyer at the Gay and Lesbian center and had him sue Michael for nonpayment of child support for J.R.  Even if Michael didn't feel he'd done anything wrong and refused to part with any of his toys, an audit was ordered and the pile of toys which had cost thousands, were found to be worth hundreds of thousands.   Jenny may be young but she's set up with enough to get her into any college she wants.  Unfortunately, she takes after her dad.  No college for her.  She might have a future in set designs, from the look of it.  Teddy had hoped she would show an interest in forensic accounting  because she likes a good mystery, but numbers and Jenny don't mix.

Now let's see, where was I?  Oh yes.  So even with Michael throwing Ben under the bus, nothing could be found in his blood.  The cops having seen the video and the results of Brian's blood work, decided to let Ben go.   They were not idiots and even if they didn't have any proof against Michael, they knew he was the real culprit.  After that Ben eventually decided he needed to get away, so along with Hunter, he took up an offer to go to Tibet.  Sounds perfect, doesn't it.    He decided to write a book about his experience, which he titled 'Place Card' or 'Book Mark', or something like that; it didn't do very well though.  Then his publicist convinced him to rename the book  'Betrayal' and make it  a work of fiction rather than non-fiction, and then ta-da, sales went through the roof.  Michael tried to claim some of the money since his sources of money have dried up, the girls have disappearance but Ben donated it to help those with HIV and he doesn't miss the moola, since living like a monk helps.

In the meantime, Hunter got a job teaching English to Tibetan monks and seems very happy with his life.

As for the girl, no one knows if they are together or not.  Not that anyone cared or was willing to put out money to find them.   

Good Guys

Ted has gone back to school to study forensic accounting and won't shut up about it.  Evidently it's not as boring as it sounds and if the last couple of months are any indication, he's going to do quite well.  Brian who had won his case against the police when the truth came out that a boiler explosion caused the fire, backed him and now Kinnetik is offering this service to their clients.

Which brings us to Justin.  Thanks to Hunter, Justin's doctor was able to analyze the pills from Michael's stash and unfortunately, Justin was indeed allergic to an ingredient in one of the pills.  Sadly there was nothing that could be done to reverse his condition.

So one night Justin got this cockamamie idea that he was a burden to Brian and decided to slink off into the night.  What he didn't count on was Jenny Rebecca.  Actually nobody really counted on J.R. except maybe Gus.  As it turned out Gus was very protective of his sister, even if they were not blood related.  I think he'd been taking care of her for so long he couldn't stop himself. 

The psychiatrist...but wait I'm getting ahead of myself again.  Let's see I talked to Ben, then I talked to Teddy who told me that Brian broke his leg.  That was when things got complicated.  Brian and Justin had been staying downstairs because Brian wasn't supposed to over exert himself climbing those steep stairs.  But he was bringing Gus home so he needed to be closer to Gus' living quarters.  So the only thing that I could come up with was an elevator.  Simple, right?  Wrong.  I must have gone through my entire card file when I got a call from one of the many helpers from when we'd first been renovating the firehouse.

It seemed that they'd been hired to demo, you know demolition?  this really old building.  There was this service elevator, that wasn't worth much but it was in working order.  An answer to my prayer, right?  Well, first you need a permit.

I must have used all the connections I had but I manage to get the "oh so needed" permit.  We decided to put it in place of the fireman's pole.  I knew Brian liked it but it was safer for the kids anyway.  After that big hitch came the one with Gus' bedroom.  The thing was this room, while a nice size, was not meant to house two kids.  That was until we got a mysterious tube in the mail containing blueprints for Gus' space and signed MM.   Gus was surprised by the way his room looked .  I would say he was delighted, but with him it's hard to tell.  We, with Daphne's help,  had taken part of the room and with removable walls made a nice little retreat for a young girl.  It had everything one would need.  A bed with a canopy, a dressing table with mirror, it even had a doll house.  I even wanted to stay in that room!

Anyway, back to the great escape!  So, we have Justin trying to sneak down quietly, and then we have J.R. screaming loud enough to wake the dead, or in this case Gus and Brian.  From what I was told, Gus tackled Justin and Brian nearly fell head first down the stairway trying to maneuver with his crutches.

Somehow J.R. called Ted, who called me.  When did Ted become a confidant to Gus' sister?  If you're wondering where I was, well I was at home.  I do have a life you know. 

But back to the beginning.  By the time Brian, Ted and the kids made it back from Toronto, the freight elevator was in place. 

Sadly when the kids arrived there wasn't much in the way of clothing and toys except what Brian and Ted had gotten them.  Gus did have his skate board and that was about it, but Jenny didn't even have any dolls for her new doll house.  We held a meeting and Brian insisted we include the kids, which surprised Gus.  I think he expected to be told how things were going to be, much like things had gone down in Toronto.

The first thing Brian did was introduce everyone.  You know there are certain things that people do, and certain things they don't, and introducing children to other adults is something people don't feel they need to do.  Thankfully, I can see things are going to be different here.  Paper and pencils were handed out while I supplied coffee and soft drinks, along with freshly baked cookies and everyone was told to make a wish list.  Even me!

The children's list was meager, with a few toys, mostly books and a few bits of clothing.  Things like a coat and an extra pair of shoes.  I am embarrassed when I think of all the things I own and probably could do without and don't need.

Ted  was fairly quiet during all this, but then he asked what we wanted the kids to call us and what they wanted us to call them.

I, of course, didn't think twice and said, "I'm Emmett Honeycutt.  You can call me Em, or Auntie Em, whichever you prefer."

That had been one of Justin's good days and he chimed in with.  "Gus used to call me Jus or Jussen.  But you can call me just Justin."

Gus looked thoughtful, as if trying to remember something and nodded.  J.R., the little imp just giggled. 

Daphne, being the only other girl in the group, went next.  "My name is Daphne Chandler.  You can call me Daph, same as Justin does."

Gus looked at Brian and asked.  "Can I call you dad?"

"Me too, me too?" J.R. rang out.

Brian got all misty and wasn't that a surprise.  "Sure."

"What would you two like to be called?"  Ted asked.

Gus shrugged.  "Gus is good enough."

J.R. was looking down at her lap.

"Jenny Rebecca?"  Brian asked.

She looked up with tears in her eyes and I swear if anyone tried to hurt her I would make sure they never did it again.

"J.R.?" asked Gus.

"I like what Mr. Teddy calls me,"  she said in a soft voice.

"Mr. Teddy.  And just what is that?"  I asked. 

Teddy blushed.  "Princess."

The  sound of "Awwws."  went around the room and it was decided, Princess it was.

Our little Princess was having many problems and Gus was doing his best to help her.  Her greatest fear was that Michael would try to take her away and Gus is even more determined to not let that happen.  He doesn't' want to have to rely on us adults and when you think about it, he has perfectly good reasons for that attitude.    We tried to tell her that Gus, when he hired the lawyer to take back the money from Michael, had convinced a judge that she would be better off with her brother and Brian.  When the judge had heard what Gus had to say about Michael and what JR wanted he decided that he couldn't in good conscience let her liver with a man who wouldn't give any money for his daughter and worse let her live without clothes or food to buy toys.  But her fears had taken hold of her, and there was only so much a young boy could do.  What needed to happen was to get her to leave the firehouse.  I mean, we all have a to have a way to escape the people we are living with, I had my apartment and Brian had work. 

So one night when I was out at Woody's I ran into Alex Wilder, an old friend of Brian's.  I broached, quietly you see, the problems the kids were having.  He made some suggestions, but in this case they weren't viable.

"Why?" he asked.

Then in walked the cause of all our problems.  He was ranting and raging loudly and this time it was aimed at his mother.   Sadly he saw me and came over interrupting my conversation as if I had nothing better to do than to listen to him berate me on all the things that had gone wrong with his life as if it was my fault.   Never had I wished harder that I was the good fairy in the Wizard of Oz as I was then.  I wanted to wave my wand and tell him to be gone.  Fortunately a couple of bears saw the trouble I was having and whisked the bad seed out of Woodys.  Too late though, as my evening was ruined.

I didn't see Alex again.  He was smart enough to get out while the getting was good, which was a crying shame really, as he isn't hard on the eyes.  But on the bright side, he did go to Brian and between them, with Teddy's help; they came up with a plan.  At least I think he went to see Brian, though it could have been Daphne's idea.

I admit I was skeptical at first, but the results spoke for themselves.  It all started with make believe, Daphne showed up with a 'friend' who just talked, not to anyone in particular, but she quickly brought the kids into the conversation.  She said she was going to be in a play and needed help; it turned into a day filled with dress up and laughter.

The Firehouse Four and Friends

Now you are going to have to forgive me while I change the subject again.  Did I ever tell you how big the downstairs of the firehouse is?  Well one day someone in my apartment building had to move and he was giving away a bunch of stuff, and he had this really big fichus.   Did I mention it was free?  I'm not really sure why I had to have it, except the kids were doing Little Red Riding Hood and they needed a forest.  I know, I know, a fichus does not a forest make.  So sue me.

Before we knew it people from all around were bringing potted plants and trees and before you could say Jack Sprout we had an inside park.  I know I say we a lot, but I feel like I'm part of the family.  Now you would have thought Brian Kinney would be against something like that, but you would be wrong!  He even managed to get a park bench for the space.

Our sweet Daphne eventually had to return to her workplace, which sadly left Justin singing the blues,  I mean literally singing, the boy has a great voice.  He and Daph had been working on redoing Michael's Rage and he missed having someone to bounce ideas off of. 

But as it turned out Gus has a wicked imagination and the two of them came up with some wild shit.  Because of Justin's handicap and yes it is considered a handicap; there was no way that Justin could do the art panels for a comic book,  so they decided to work on an actual book, they even managed to find a publisher for it.   Bet that's going to chap Michael's ass if he ever finds out.

The little Princess wasn't happy so Ted introduced her to Opera.  She didn't really care for it though, and who could blame her.  So that meant she was at loose ends, and I'm not sure, but I think when she accidentally broke one of the vases and Brian said she was going to have to replace it, that's when she got interested in pottery.  Brian wasn't even serious!  He apologized ever so nicely and all was right in Princess' world.

I'm the first to admit that she's not very good at it.  It reminds me of when I was a kid and played with Play-Doh.   Ah, those were the days.    I was amazed at how well Brian took to this especially considering how messy it was.   He even sprung for an instructor and fixed up the room under the stairway for them.  Yes, you heard me right.  Them.  Justin somehow got involved and he's really good at it.  Between the writing and the pottery, he doesn't rely on Brian for anything.  You know, I'm seeing the work of the master in this.

And me?  Remember the elevator guy?  He's been ringing my chimes.  I also found out that he had been looking out for us.  We had been wondering why we hadn't seen Mikey around.  Well, as it turned out Marcel, that is his name, had formed a crew to watch over us so whenever Michael would show up, and let me tell you it was more than we knew,  he would be physically removed from the area.  It took a while but he finally got the hint.  Someone videotaped a couple of encounters and talk about a hoot.

Anyway, the kids are now happy.  Brian had them home schooled and it's unconventional to say the least.  There were cooking classes taught moi, Ted contributes by giving  French lessons and found someone for math and science, Justin is in charge of art, and one of the computer geeks from Kinnetik gives lesson in hacking among other things.  Justin's happy, he realized that his life was not over and  he was able to so much more then he'd thought he could.  Brian, of course, is ecstatic.   He has Justin and his son, not to mention a family that makes him happy.  For better or worse they are making it work. 

Oh, one more thing.  Last night Justin had this dream that he was pregnant.  Funny thing, Brian had a similar dream.  Not that Justin was pregnant, but that Brian was.  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.  Today in the mail was a card of congratulations signed MM.  What does it mean?

The END